Large Tube Gravity Experiment

While fixing up George’s new big boy room, we got new carpet for the room and ended up with this large carpet tube.

This was such a treat for the boys! And I think you could go to any carpet store and they’d be happy to give you any tubes that they have. Or this experiment could be done on a much smaller scale too using wrapping paper tubes, or even a paper towel tube.

Of course, I just let the boys explore this large tube to see what they’d find to do with it.

Henry propped it up on his table and ran tractor after tractor down it. Running from one end to the other racing the tractor. George did the same (of course!), following Henry’s lead.

The boys worked together, but occasionally fought over it too. For the most part, one would run a tractor through it while the other waited for it at the other end! It was magical and mysterious to them!

It wasn’t until they started fighting a little more over the tube that I started probing them with questions, making them think how they could use the tube.

The obvious question to ask: “How can you make it go down the tube faster?”

Henry had the answer! Raise it up higher!

Of course! Gravity will do its job!

So that’s what we did. We propped the tube up higher. And tested it. Did the tractor make it down faster? It was obvious that it did. But I wished we had two tubes to test and compare side by side. (Maybe a future experiment with other tubes!)

But of course, the boys wanted the tractor to go even faster yet! So we propped it up more and more. Henry kept asking for it to be higher and higher. Until he couldn’t reach the tube anymore.

With the gravity tube I had the toddlers in my class paint the tube then I velcrowed it to the wall. That way the kids can take it on and off ithe wall and turn it in different positions. They put the cars inside and other small objects.